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_A_  SERMON 


PKEACHED  BEFOEE  THE 

FIFTY-SIXTH  ANNUAL  CONVENTION  OF  THE  DIOCESE  OF 
NORTH  CAROLINA,  IN  ST.  LUKE'S  CHURCH,  SALIS- 
BURY, WEDNESDAY,  MAY  29th,  1872. 


MINISTERS  AND  MEMBERS  OF  CHRIST— STEWARDS  OF  HIGH  TRUSTS: 
THEIR  CONSEQUENT  DUTIES  OF  THE  DA  Y. 


"  It  is  required  in  stewards  that  a  man  be  found  faithful." — 1  Cor.  iv.  2. 

The  mission  of  the  Church  is  the  conquest  of  the  world:—  The  peace- 
ful conquest  of  the  whole  world.  Our  Lord  Christ,  the  great  Head  of 
the  Church,  is  "  the  Prince  of  Peace,"  "  and  the  work  of  righteousness 
shall  be  peace;  and  the  effect  of  righteousness  quietness  and  assurance 
for  ever  ?  "  (Isaiah  xxxii.  17.) 

The  character  and  extent  of  this  mighty  mission  of  the  Church  ap- 
pear on  the  very  face  of  its  charter.  And  how  unmistakable  the  dec- 
laration of  the  power  and  authority,— as  was  first  necessary — from 
which  that  commission  emanated.  "  All  power  is  given  unto  me  in 
heaven  and  in  earth.  Go  ye  therefore  and  evangelize  all  nations."  "  Go 
ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature."  "  The 
field  is  the  world, ,f  the  whole  world.  "The  kingdoms  of  this  world 
are  (to)  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ."  The 
Church  is  therefore  distinctively  and  essentially  aggressive: —"The 
Church  Militant."  A  faith  that  is  not  worth  propagating  is  not  the 
faith  of  the  Gospel  of  God.  In  the  very  act  of  becoming  subjects  of 
this  Kingdom  of  Christ,  we  enlist  under  his  banner  as  soldiers — for 
^/what  are  soldiers,  if  not  to  fight  ?  Our  very  vow  of  allegiance  is  to 
fight  manfully  against  sin,  the  world  and  the  devil,  unto  our  life's  end." 

This  conflict  of  the  Church  with  the  world  is  an  inevitable  and  an 
irrepressible  one  ;  "  for  whnt  fellowship  hath  righteousness  with  un- 
righteousness ?  and  what  communion  bath  light  with  darkness  ?  And 
what  concord  hath  Christ  with  Belial  ?  or  what  part  hath  he  that 
believelh  with  an  infidel?  "    "  The  carnal  mind  "  and  "the  friendship 


6 


of  the  world  "  are  they  not  "  enmity  with  God  ?  "  "  Because  ye  are 
not  of  the  world,  but  I  have  chosen  you  out  of  the  world,  therefore 
the  world  hateth  you." 

"  Good  and  evil,  set  against  the  other's  being,  strive," — and  neces- 
sarily so.  It  is  the  Master's  word  :  "Ye  cannot' serve  God  and  Mam- 
mon." "He  that  is  not  with  me  is  against  me  ;  and  he  that  gather- 
eth  not  with  me  scattereth  abroad."  There  can  be  here  no  neutral, 
and  no  commori  ground  as  well.  I  repeat,  the  issue  is  inevitable;  the  con- 
flict irrepressible.  "  Is  there  not  a  warfare  to  man  upon  earth  ?  "  (Job 
vii.  1.) 

This,  then,  is  a  first  principle  of  the  faith  abundantly  evident:—  The 
Church  of  God  on  earth  is  distinctively  and  essentially  the  Church 
Militant.  And  equally  clearly  revealed  in  the  Word  of  God  is  that 
closely  kindred  truth,  that  this  victory — ultimately  under  God  full  and 
complete — this  victory  of  the  Church  over  the  world  is  to  be  achieved 
by  the  power  of  Faith.  ' '  This  is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world, 
even  our  faith."  »  (St.  John.) 

And  so  it  is,  brethren,  that  these  few,  familiar  words  of  St.  Paul  in 
the  text  seem  to  me  to  embody  truth  whose  various  phases  and  appli- 
cations will  infallibly  furnish  remedies  for  the  removal  of  whatever 
may  in  any  wise  hinder  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  on 
earth.  To  obviate  or  overcome  all  gSSsible  difficulties — "  It  is  (only) 
required  in  stewards  that  a  man  be  found  faithful  "—full  of  faith.*  Not 
less  pointedly  and  plainly  does  this  same  Apostle  put  this  truth  in  sev- 
eral of  his  other  Epistles.    "Fight  the  good 'fight  of  Faith"  is  his 

exhortation  to  his  son  in  the  Faith  and  in  the  ministry  St.  Timothy* 

This  daily  walk  of  the  Christian  is  necessarily — as  we  have  seen — an 
unceasing  warfare.     It  is  a  fight.    And  it  is,  and  will  ever  be  for 

*  It  has  been  questioned  whether  the  use  of  this  phrase  • '  full  of  faith  "  for 
"  faithful  "  is  authorized.  To  which  I  reply  :  First,  It  is  so  used  on  the  au- 
thority, and  after  the  example  of  Archbishop  Leighton  and  others.  Secondly, 
"  Harrison  on  the  English  language  "  (Second  American  Edition,  page  240) 
says,  "  with  respect  to  the  signification  of  adjectives,  one  broad  distinction  is 
to  be  found  in  words  ending  in  ful,  and  those  ending  in  less  ;  the  former  de- 
noting possession  of,  the  other  absence  of."  "  Faithful  "  is  manifestly  a  com- 
pound of  "  faith  "  and  "  full,"  and  therefore  means  primarily  and  literally,  "pos- 
sessed of,"  or  "full  of  faith."  Its  more  common  signification,  "firm  in  adher- 
ence to  truth  and  duty,"  "  of  true  fidelity,"  is  secondary,  and  in  this  way  easily 
and  naturally  acquired,  viz. :  As  a  man  believes,  so  he  lives.  This  is  true, 
whatever  men  may  profess  to  the  contrary.  Our  duties  and  truth  we  live  up 
to,  just  in  proportion  as  we  really  and  truly  believe  in  them.  In  other  words,  we 
are  faithful  just  in  proportion  as  wre  are  full  of  faith.  Lastly,  the  orignal  "iriffrSs" 
has  the  force  of  the  active  participle  '  *  ttktt^vwv  "  and  signifies  "  believing, " 
"  yielding  belief  and  confidence  "  and  still  more  specially  and  locally  "  believ- 
ing in  Jesus, "  ' '  a  believer, "  ' '  Christian, "  in  numerous  passages  of  the  New 
Testament.  See  particularlyJohn  xx.  27  ;  Gal.  iii.  9  ;  Acts  x.  45,  xvi.  1,  15  and 
others. 


7 


all  time,  and  everywhere,  here  on  earth,  pre-eminently  a  fight  of  Faith. 
And  so  in  that  other  striking  Scripture  how  beautifully  and  forcibly 
are  we  taught  the  same  truth!    Soldiers  ©f  Christ,  fighting  under  the 
great  "  Captain  of  our  Salvation,"  in  his  own  Divinely  Organized  army 
— his  Church  are  exhorted  to  "take  above  all  the  shield  of  Faith,  where- 
with they  shall  be  able  to  quench  all  the  fiery  darts  of  the  wicked  one. " 
The  proper  place  of  this  shield  of  Faith  is  "  above  all  " — covering  all — 
the  entire  armor,  the  whole  Christian  man.    The  entire  panoply  of 
God,  beside,  is  wholly  ineffectual  for  the  successful  waging  of  this  war- 
fare with  the  world  without  the  overshadowing  protection  of  this 
' '  shield  of  Faith. "    How  prone  men  are  to  go  out  of  their  way  to  make 
difficulties  here  !    Because  of  the  frequency,  as  it  should  be,  with  which 
the  necessity  of  Faith,  in  the  economy  of  grace,  is  urged  from  the  pul- 
pit, they  are  apt  to  imagine  that  it  is  something  very  different  from 
what  it  is — that  it  is  some  more  or  less  inextricably  involved  theological 
dogma,  some  more  or  less  vague  and  obscure  religious  tenet ;  whereas, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  difficulty  of  its  apprehension^  consists  solely  in 
its  very  simplicity.    Saving  Faith  is  that  which  has  its  highest  exem- 
plification in  the  spirit  of  the  humblest  little  child.    It  is  simply 
taking  our  Blessed  Lord  at  His  word,  doing  as  dutiful  children  what  he 
commands,  on  the  assurance  of  his  Love.    Surely  "Thus  saith  the 
Lord  "  is  quite  enough  for  men"D^earth  to  know.  Now,exactly  what  this 
Faith  is,  in  its  exercise  and  efficacy,  seems  to  me  to  be  the  point  mainly 
brought  out  in  the  te$t.    This  Faith  "  that  overcometh  the  world  "  is 
"the  evidence  of  things  unseen." 

It  is  "  the-f  acuity  (not  by  which  we  conceive,  but)  by  which  we  real- 
ize these  things,  feel  them  to  have  a  body  and  a  substance. "  To  im- 
agine the  truths  of  Religion  is  not  to  believe  them  ;  the  believing  them 
is  the  having  such  a  conviction  of  their  reality,  as  to  live  under  their 
influence,  and  to  be  in  some  measure,  at  least,  governed  by  them."* 
It  is  not  theoretical  or  speculative  or  historical  only,  but  especially 
practical.  It  is  the  ready  assent  to  these  "  unseen  "  things  of  God,  not 
only  of  the  mind — the  intellect — but  that  of  the  will  as  well,  and  of  the 
heart  and  of  the  life.  It  is  not  enough  that  we  have  the  power  of  be- 
lieving, we  must  show  that  we  exercise  that  power  of  realizing  faith  in 
our  daily  lives.  It  is  not  enough  that  this  trust  is  committed  to  us — 
that  we  are  stewards.  "Moreover,  it  is  required  in  stewards  that  a  man 
be  found  faithful." 

The  principle  here  laid  down  is  one — as  I  am  thoroughly  persuaded 
— that  will  meet  all  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  work  given  us  of 
God  to  do. 

Ought  we  not  to  have  first  regard  to  it,  in  all  our  deliberations  for 
the  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  on  earth  ?  We  come  together, 
elders  and  brethren,  for  a  few  days  yearly,  not  to  discuss  theories  of 
little  or  no  practical  bearing,  nor  to  revive  issues — however  important 

L  *Goulburn's  "Pursuit  of  Holiness,  "  Chapter  III.,  p.  21. 


8 


once — now  long  settled.  "  Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead."  We  are 
here  the  rather,  I  take  it,  to  take  counsel  how  best  to  meet  and  over- 
come or  obviate  the  difficulties  that  make  themselves  known  to  us  in 
our  daily  work  for  Christ  and  His  Church.  And  whatever  may  be  the- 
result  of  our  deliberations  to  this  end,  still,  all  that  we  may  do  must- 
bear  the  test  of  this  teaching  of  the  text.  Whatever  powers  are  com- 
mitted to  the  Church  for  the  evangelization  of  the  world,  they  are  ef- 
ficacious only  as  they  are  used  faithfully.  This  is  the  very  obvious  line 
of  thought  here  suggested. 

To  everyone  on  earth  hath  God  given  a  work  to  do,  u  every  man  in 
his  own  order,"  "to  each  according  to  his  several  ability."  To  be 
sure,  St.  Paul  is  here  speaking  with  primary  reference  to  the  Christian 

'   Ministry,  as  is  sufficiently  evident  from  the  immediate  context. 

A  certain  faction  at  Corinth  endeavored  to  disparage  that  ministry 
that  the  Apostle^  exercised  among  them.  He  writes  to  vindicate  the 
claims  of  his  office,  asserting  its  divine  appointment,  and  its  high, 
two-fold  functions.  "  Let  a  man  so  account  of  us  as  of  the  ministers 
of  Christ  and  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God."  And  then  immedi- 
ately follows  the  text,  in  which  the  Apostle  does  not,  you  observe, 
restrict  what  is  said  to  the  Christian  ministry  alone  of  which  he  was 
just  speaking;  but  rather  gives  expression  to  a  well-known  general 
principle  of  universal  applicability :  *'It  is  required  in  stewards,"  in 
general,  as  is  well-known,  "that  a  man  be  found  faithful. "  That  all 
men  are  after  some  sort  stewards  of  God,  is  plainly  taught  us  in  two  at 
least  of  our  Lord's  parables,  and  in  various  exhortations  of  His  Apos- 
tles. "  Unto  everyone  of  us  is  given  grace  according  to  the  measure  of 
the  gift  of  Christ.''  "As  every  man  hath  received  the  gift,  even  so 
minister  the  same  one  to  another  as  good  stewards  of  the  manifold 
grace  of  God."  We  all — clergy  and  laity — come  fairly  under  the 
terms  of  the  text. 

What,  then,  are  those  special  trusts  committed  to  our  stewardship  ? 
and  what,  in  consequence,  that  special  faithfulness  in  the  use  of  such 
trusts  that  is  "  required  ''  of  us  ?  I  say  special  trusts  and  special  faith- 
fulness advisedly  :  for  we  are  not  now  concerned  to  inquire  into  the 
nature  of  that  stewardship  that  we  have  of  God  in  common  with  all 
other  men,  as  that  of  the  exercise  of  our  reason,  and  of  the  proper  use 
of  the  means  and  opportunities  given  us  of  ascertaining  "  what  is 
"truth,"  and  of  doing  our  duty  in  general  "in  that  state  of  life  unto 
which  it  hath  pleased  God  to  call  us."  But  as  Churchmen  of  this  day 
and  generation,  and  in  this  land,  what  special  measures  of  trust  and  of 
repousibility  are  those  committed  to  us  of  God  ?  A  very  little  reflec- 
tion will  suffice  to  show  that  they  are  of  peculiar  and  vast  weight  and 

I  responsibility. 

Just  a  year  ago  were  these  words  of  warning  given  us  by  the  chief 
;  watchman  upon  the  walls  of  our  Zion  :  "  Unbelief  and  immorality 
I  are  becoming  more  and  more  prevalent,  apparently,  throughout  the 


9 


world — certainly  in  our  own  country — and  if  these  gigantic  evils  are  to 
be  effectually  checked,  it  must  be  by  the  power  of  true  religion.  We 
believe  our  Church  is  pre-eminently  qualified,  because  divinely  gifted 
for  this  very  work.  "* 

The  powers  and  resources  aud  agencies  of  the  Church  are  amply  ad- 
equate to  the  magnitude  of  the  task,  however  great.  To  suppose 
otherwise  would  be  to  cbarge  God  with  folly.  Is  not  God's  work  well 
done?  And  just  here  is  that  essential  mark  of  religious  truth,  that 
men  in  this  age  seem  esj^ecially  prone  to  overlook,  and  the  disregard 
of  which  seems  immediately  to  underlie  modern  unbelief.  God's  truth 
is  positive,  objective  revelation.  ' '  The  Faith  was  delivered  to  the  Saints," 
and    once  "  for  all. 

When  the  canon  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  was  closed,  that  work  was 
full  and  complete  and  perfect,  wanting  nothing.  We  may  not  add 
thereto  or  take  therefrom  one  jot  or  tittle,  except  at  our  peril  (Rev. 
xxii. :  19.)  And,  therefore,  our  whole  duty  is  to  ascertain  "what 
hath  God  said,"  and  therein  only  to  be  "faithful."  And  so,  as  it  has 
been  wrell  expressed,  "  The  Church  principle  is  adherence  to  antiquity, 
because  antiquity  represents  original  revehition  and  consentient  wit- 
ness." And  so  also  that  oft-quoted  maxim  of  St.  Vincent  which  so 
concisely  embodies  an  essential  mark  of  the  Catholic  Church  : — "Quoct 
semper,  Quod  ubique,  Quod  abkmnibus."  Even  Macaulay,  whose  reli- 
gious faith  was  certainly  not  of  the  most  dogmatic  or  positive  kind, 
even  he  declares  :  "It  is  plain  that  in  divinity  there  cannot  be  a  pro- 
gress analogous  to  that  which  is  constantly  taking  place  in  pharmacy, 
geology  and  navigation.  "A  Christian  of  the  fifth  century, "  he  con- 
tinues, "  with  a  Bible,  is  neither  better  nor  worse  situated  than  a 
Christian  of  the  nineteenth  with  a  Bible  ;  candor  and  natural  acuteness 
being,  of  course,  supposed  equal.  It  matters  not  at  all  that  the  com- 
pass, printing,  gunpowder,  steam,  gas,  vaccination,  and  a  thousand 
other  discoveries  and  inventions  which  were  unknown  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, are  familiar  to  the  nineteenth.  None  of  these  discoveries  and  in- 
ventions has  the  smallest  bearing  on  the  question,  whether  man  is  jus- 
tified by  faith  alone,  or  whether  the  invocation  of  saints  is  an  orthodox 
practice."! 

Now  it  is  exactly  this  characteristic  of  God's  revealed  will  to  man — 
its  fulness  and  completeness  and  finality,  so  to  speak— It  is  exactly  this 
truth  that  it  is  the  tendency  of  the  teaching  of  modern  science,  false- 
ly so  called,  to  depreciate  if  not  absolutely  to  deny.  Its  tendency  is 
to  reverse  the  old  theological  maxim,  and  to  teach  that  what  is  new 
is  true  ;  and  what  is  old  is  therefore  false.  But  let  God  be  true  and 
every  man  a  liar,  "  the  old  is  better."  Certain  old-fashioned  truths, 
for  many  long  ages  wholly  unquestioned,  and  such  as  lie  at  the  very 

*  Bishop  Atkinson's  Convention  Addrefss^HTl. 

f  From  Lord  Macaulay 's  "Review  of  Ease's  History  of  the  Popes,"  quoted 
in  Sadler's  "Church  Doctrine  Bible  Truth,"  p.  371.    (3d  English  Edition). 


10 


foundation  of  the  Faith  are  now  considered  behind  the  spirit  of  the 
age  ;  suited  perhaps — so  they  put  it — to  the  blind  credulity  of  the 
dark  ages,  but  entirely  incompatible  with  modern  progress.  We  live 
in  an  age  when  self  constituted  teachers  of  the  people  do  not  scruple 
to  deny  all  positive  truth. 

Brethren  of  the  clergy,  upon  us  are  the  vows  of  God.  We  are  the 
chief  custodians  of  the  unalterable  truths  of  a  God,  "  the  same  yester- 
day, to-day  and  forever."  .  We  are  the  highest  stewards  of  the  highest 
trusts.  *^ 

There  is  in  our  land  a  growing  disregard  of  rightly  constituted  au- 
thority. The  times  demand  that  we  should  distinctly  assert  the  high 
claims  of  our  office.  We  have  no  right  to  claim  for  it  less  than  what 
God's  word  declares  it  to  be.  It  is  not  an  act  of  faithfulness  to  that 
Master  whose  servants  we  are,  to  derogate  in  the  least  degree  from  the 
dignity  of  our  office. 

It 'is  not  of  men,  but  of  God.  Of  course  it  is  1 1  the  altar  that  sancti- 
fies tfie  gift ;  "  only  the  office  and  not  the  man  for  which  these  claims 
are  made.  Who  feels  as  we  do  that 4 '  this  treasure  is  in  earthern  ves- 
sels ?  "  If  the  great  St.  Paul,  at  the  very  moment  of  working  a  won- 
drous miracle  of  cure,  found  it  necessary  to  remind  his  hearers  that 
he  was  a  "  man  of  like  passions  with  other  men,"  how  much  more 
have  we  of  this  day  and  generation  such  need.  But  for  all  that  the 
office  is  God-given,  and  of  dicine  functions  and  powers.  We  are  not 
likely  to  mistake  the  purport  of  such  language  as  this  :  ft  He  that  re- 
ceiveth  you  receiveth  me,  and  he  that  receiveth  me,  receiveth  him 
that  sent  me."  "  Now  then,  we  are  ambassadors  for  Christ,  as  though 
God  did  beseech  you  by  us  ;  we  pray  you  in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  re- 
conciled to  God."  "Whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on  earth  shall  be 
bound  in  heaven,  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose  on  earth,  shall  be 
losed  in  heaven,"  et  al.freq. 

Thus  on  the  very  face  of  our  letter  of  instructions,  does  it  appear 
beyond  all  doubt,  that  these  high  functions  pertain  to  our  office. 
They  are  in  general — as  distinctly  stated  in  the  immediate  context — 
twofold.  We  are  first,  "  Ministers  of  Christ,"  and  secondly, 
"Stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God."  Our  duties  in  consequence,  are 
correspondingly  twofold;  that  is,  first,  as  "  Ministers  of  Christ  "  to 
"preach  the  word  of  reconciliation  committed  unto  us,"  (II.  Cor.  v. : 
19,)  "Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified,"  and  secondly,  as  "Stewards 
of  the  mysteries  of  God,"  to  dispense  to  the  fnmily  of  the  Faithful,  the 
sacraments  and  ordinances  of  His  Church.  Herein  are  included  all 
that  "is  required  "  of  us.  It  is  only  necessary  that  we  be  found  faith- 
ful. What  this  age  especially  demands  of  us  is  that  unwavering 
fidelity,  that  inflexible  steadiness  and  stability  and  boldness  in  setting 
forth  the  immutable  truths  of  God  committed  to  our  stewardship^ 
that  was  so  conspicuous  a  characteristic  of  that  great  type  and  pre- 
cursor of  the  Christian  ministry,  St.  John  Baptist.    "What  went  ye 


11 


out  into  the  wilderness  to  see  ?  A  reed  shaken  with  the  wind  ?  " 
(St.  Matt.  xi.  7.)  Let  us  go  out  into  the  wilderness  of  the  world,  if 
we  will,  to  see  reeds  shaken  with  the  winds  ;  but  let  us  hope  never  to 
see  so  great  an  anomaly  in  the  Church  of  the  changeless  God.  Let 
the  Gospel  trumpet  above  all  things  else,  give  the  same  old  and  that 
no  "  uncertain  sound  ! "  Let  there  be  at  least  one  spot  on  earth 
where  we  may  find  an  asylum  and  quiet  seclusion  from  a  jarring, 
clamorous,  boisterous  world.  Let  "the  city  of  our  refuge  "  be  our 
zion,  "  the  city  of  our  God,"  wherev«=  may  we  only  hear  again  and 
again  the  same  old  truths,  walk  in  the  same  "old  paths;"  use  the 
same  old  prayers  of  our  fathers,  and  have  our  souls  filled  with  the 
same  old  heavenly  strains  !  Let  novelty  and  innovation  and  chance 
and  change  characterize  aught  else  beside  ;  but  let  them  never  come 
near  the  Church,  and  her  immutable  principles  and  teachings  !  Let 
the  broken  reeds  of  Puritanism  and  fanaticism  bend  and  cringe — as 
they  have  ever  done — to  the  sweeping  currents  of  popular  passion^  and 
prejudice.  But  let  the  Church,  in  her  uncompromising  integrity  and 
rectitude,  continue  as  ever  of  old,  a  sure  refuge  from  and  standing  pro- 
test against  such  utter  abominations  !  Let  us  never  on  any  account, 
suffer  to  be  lowered  in  one  jot  or  tittle  the  Church's  high  standard  of 
her  sacred  ministry — its  God-given  authority  and  commission  and 
province  and  prerogative!  Let  "  a  reed  shaken  with  the  wind  "  be 
emblematic  and  typical  of  anything  else  rather  than  the  ministry  of 
"  the  Church  of  the  living  God  which  is  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the 
truth."  But  this  general  principle  has  certain  applications  in  this  our 
day  of  special  importance. 

In  the  most  solemn  act  of  our  lives,  we  have  promised  "  to  be  ready, 
with  all  faithful  diligence,  to  banish  and  drive  away  from  the  Church 
all  erroneous  and  strange  doctrines  contrary  to  God's  word."  The 
enemies  of  the  Church  of  to-day  are  more  from  within  than  without. 
The  errors  that  are  most  to  be  dreaded  are  those  taught  in  the  name, 
and  under  the  guise  of  religious  truth.  In  this  age  of  free  thought 
and  a  liberal  religion,  men  need  to  be  often  reminded  that  there  is  such 
a  thing  as  faith  on  the  earth,  and  positive  truth  the  object  of  faith. 
And  there  is  such  a  thing  as  positive  error  as  well.  We  may  not 
mince  matters  of  such  moment.  What  more  fruitful  source  of  i  rror 
in  the  religious  world  than  that  very  popular  fallacy  that  it  is  of  "  no 
consequence  what  a  man  believes,  so  that  he  does  right."  How  rad- 
ically wrong  is  such  teaching  so  rife  in  our  day  !  It  strikes  at  the  very 
root  of  the  revelation  of  God — at  the  very  foundation  of  the  Faith, 
and  its  tendency  is  the  utter  overthrow  of  all  positive  truth.  This 
"  strange  doctrine  "  is  moreover — as  I  am  thoroughly  persuaded — 
more  than  any  other  one  thing,  the  cause  of  the  countless  and  dis- 
graceful divisions  among  "those  who  profess  and  call  themselves 
Christians,"  that  harden  men  in  their  contempt  of  Christ  and  His 
Church.    It  isn't  that  it  is  so  difficult  to  ascertain  "  what  is  truth  " — 


12 


what  those  invariable  marks  are,  by  which  the  Catholic  Church  has 
always  been,  and  may  always  be,  known.  But  men  are  taught — and 
are  ready  enough  to  believe — that  it  is  of  little  or  no  consequence  to 
search  after,  and  endeavor  to  ascertain  them.  "It  is  evident  unto  all 
men,  diligently  reading  Holy  Scripture  and  ancient  authors, that  from  the 
Apostles'  time  there  have  been  these  orders  of  ministers  in  Christ's 
Church — bishops,  priests  and  deacons,"  *  *  .*  and  that  "no  man 
shall  be  accounted  or  taken  to  be  a  lawful  bishop,  priest,  or  deacon,  ex. 
cept  he  *  *  *  hath  Had  Episcopal  consecration  or  ordination" 
(Prefaoe  to  the  original.)  &J^&^fO^) 

The  evidences  are  plain  enough,  but  men  are  taught  that  it  is  of  little 
or  no  importance  to  investigate  them.  Nor  is  this  all.  Not  only  is 
that  infallible  mark  of  the  Church  Catholic  denied,  but  its  very  op- 
posite is  asserted.  How  often  is  it  said  that  the  different  religious  or- 
ganizations, though  holding  opposing  doctrines,  are,  nevertheless,  for 
the  best  interests  of  the  cause  of  truth  and  of  Christ,  on  the  principle 
that  opposition,  frequent  agitation  brings  to  the  surface  only  the  true 
metal.  Why,  isn't  it  a  notorious  fact  that  he  who  directs  the  religious 
thought  of  the  largest  congregation  on  the  continent,  or,  at  any  rate, 
he  whose  sermons  and  lectures  are  heard  and  read  by  more  people  than 
those  of  any  other  man  now  living  in  our  land — isn't  it  a  well-known 
fact  that  it  is  the  teaching  of  the  Plymouth  pulpit  that  "  there  should 
be  five  or  six  different  religious  denominations  at  the  least  ?  " 

But  again,  "let  God  be  true,  and  every  man  a  liar."  "What  God 
hath  cleansed,  that  we  may  not  call  common."  I  remember  no  stronger 
expressions — and  they  are  very  numerous — in  the  Word  of  Truth, 
than  those  in  which  our  Lord  and  His  Apostles  rebuke  divisions,  and  /  ✓ 
exhort  to  unity  in  the  Church — His  Body.  Whom  did  St.  Paul  speak  /rnJ^- 
more  sharply  or  pointedly  than  in  this  very  Epistle  of  the  text,  where 
he  rebuked  certain  embryo  schisms  in  the  Corinthian  Church  ? 

Take  these  passages  as  but  a  small  part  and  fair  specimens.     "  Now 
I  beseech  you,  brethren,  by  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that 
ye  all  speak  the  same  thing,  and  that  there  be  no  divisions  among  you; 
but  that  ye  be  perfectly  joined  together  in  the  same  mind  and  in  the 
same  judgment. "  And  again,  "  Now  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  mark  them 
which  cause  divisions  and  offences  contrary  to  the  doctrine  which  ye  have 
learned,  and  avoid  them"  Is  there  not  deep  significance — not  to  cite  other 
passages — in  the  fact  that  the  last  prayer  our  Lord  uttered  before  his 
;  k  Blessed  Passion,  was  for  the  unity  of  the  Church  ;  "  That  they  all  may  be 
)  ■  one,  as  Thou,  Father,  art  in  Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  also  may  be 
'   one  in  us:  "  and  why  ?  "  That  the  world  may  believe  that  Thou  hast 
,    sent  Me."    The  unity  of  the  Church  was  to  be  a  proof  of  its  Divine 
i;':  origin  and  mission,  and  that  which  was  to  draw  men  to  it.     There  is 
more  kb-ere-than  appears  on  the  surface  of  those  words  of  St.  Paul  just 
-  quoted.    "  Mark  them  which  cause  divisions  and  offences,  &c."  Divis- 
•  ions  in  the  Church  are  causes  of  offence  to  the  world,  whose  effect  is  to 


13 


keep  men  from  Christ  and  His  Church.  And  don't  we  see  it  so  every- 
day ?  How  often  do  sincere  and  earnest  men — to  say  nothing  of  those 
who  are  neither — say,  "  Whom  are  we  to  follow  among  such  a  multi- 
tude of  counselors,  teaching  doctrines  directly  contrary  the  one  to  the 
other,  with  equal  sincerity  and  equal  confidence  ?  "  In  this  lamenta- 
ble state  of  things,  we  may  be  sure,  is  one  of  the  chief  hindrances 
that  the  cause  of  Christ  has  to  contend  with  in  the  world. 

As  God's  Holy  Word  is  true,  there  is  such  a  thing  as  schism,  and  it 
is  a  sin.  And  when  just  these  truths  are  presented,  though  it  be  in 
the  very  words  of  the  Scriptures  themselves,  how  almost  invariably 
are  they  met  with  the  false  teaching  of  Popes  oft-quoted  couplet: 

"  For  modes  of  Faith  let  senseless  bigots  fight  ; 
He  can't  be  wrong  whose  life  is  in  the  right,  'J  

as  sheer  "  ad  captandum  "  cant  as  ever  was  penned.  Who  is  to  decide 
when  one's  "life  is  in  the  right"  in  the  absence  of  a  positive  and 
definite  Faith  ?  In  the  want  of  such  a  Faith,  what  seems  very  right  to 
one  man,  not  may,  merely,  but  actually  does  seem  very  wrong  to  another, 
equally  sincere.  As  has  been  well  said,  such  talk  "was  the  cant  of  a 
Godless  time,  the  most  sickening  of  all  cant,  the  cant  of  liberality. 
What  it  comes  from  is  just  this  utter  heresy — a  very  deep  and  radical 
one  in  New  England — the  belief  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  religion, 
as  a  revelation  of  objective  fact,  that  it  is  simply  the  subjective  state 
of  mind  of  the  man  toward  God.  Provided  the  man  be  inspired  to  de- 
vout feeling  and  correct  behavior,  Christ  as  the  human  teacher  only, 
or  Christ  as  the  Divine  Son.  are  matters  of  no  moment.  These  are 
only  ideas  by  which  religion  is  effected.  Whichever  idea  makes  most 
religion  is  best.  Truth  is  laid  wholly  out  of  the  question."*  But 
surely  the  religion  of  Christ  is  not  wholly  or  even  mainly  a  matter  of 
emotion  or  opinion.  It  is  a  matter  of  principle  and  of  revelation  of 
positive,  objective  truth. 

The  times  and  the  prevailing  forms  of  religious  error  imperatively 
demand  that  men  should  be  plainly  taught  that  "  Sincerity  is  no  equiva- 
lent for  Truth."  To  say  that  it  is,  however  common  or  popular,  is 
nevertheless  "doctrine"  plainly  "contrary  to  God's  Word."  When 
"  Uzza  put  forth  his  hand  to  hold  the  ark,  when  the  oxen  stumbled," 
he  doubtless  thought — if  he  thought  at  all — that  his  good  intentions, 
the  sincerity  of  his  motives,  would  excuse  this  breach  of  God's  law; 
yet  "  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was  kindled  against  Uzza,  and  he  smote 
him,  because  he  put  his  hand  to  the  ark  ;  and  there  he  died  before 
God." — (I.  Chron.  xiii.)  God's  immutable  truth  and  righteous  laws 
must  be  vindicated.  How  many  awful  instances  are  given  us  for  warn- 
ing, of  such  vindication  !  "God  is  not  a  man,  that  He  should  lie ; 
neither  the  son  of  man,  that  He  should  repent :  hath  He  said,  and  shall 


*  "The  (Hartford)  Churchman"  for  Feb.  12th,  1870— Art. : 
tian  is. " 


'  What  a  Chris- 


14 


He  not  do  it  ?  or  hath  He  spoken,  and  shall  He  not  make  it  good  ? " 
St.  Paul  declared  that  he  was  u  not  meet  to  be  called  an  Apostle,  be- 
cause he  persecuted  the  Church  of  God  : "  and  yet  at  the  time  of  that 
persecution  he  "  verily  thought  with  himself  that  he  ought  to  do 
many  things  contrary  to  the  name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth."  Even  he 
that  "knew  not"  his  Lord's  will — and  consequently  could  plead  a  better 
excuse  than  sincerity  and  good  intentions — "and  did  it  not,"  though 
"beaten  with  few  stripes,"  was  nevertheless  "beaten." 

It  is  not  true  that  it  is  of  little  moment  what  a  man  believes,  or  what 
he  understands  the  Church  of  Christ  to  be,  provided  he  is  only  sincere 
in  that  understanding  and  consistent.  It  is  worse  than  absurd  to  say 
that  two  creeds  or  systems  of  religion  diametrically  opposed  the  one  to 
the  other,  are  both  equally  true  and  alike  acceptable  to  God.  Oppos- 
ing principles  beget  opposing  practices,  and  "  a  house  divided  against 
itself,  falleth."  Truth  is  truth  however  honestly  opposed  :  and  error  is 
error  however  conscientiously  maintained.  The  religion  of  Christ  is  a 
positive,  objective  revelation  of  the  will  of  God,  and  not  a  contradic- 
tory system  of  tenets  and  principles  varying  with  every  caprice  and 
whim  of  ambitious,  prejudiced  aspiring  leaders  and  teachers.  Merely 
human  institutions  have  ever  been  thus  characterized  more  or  less  : 
But  "  the  Church  of  the  living  God  is  not  of  men,  and  it  is  the  pillar 
and  ground  of  the  Truth." 

But  besides  these  obvious  errors  that  the  functions  of  our  office,  as 
"  Ministers  of  Christ,"  oblige  us  with  all  faithful  diligence  to  endeavor 
to  banish  from  the  Church,  there  are  others  suggested  by  our  duties  as 
"  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God."  There  are  enemies  from  without 
as  well  as  those  from  within.  The  nationalistic  tendency  of  the  age  is 
to  deny  the  Faith  in  toto  ;  to  teach  that  what  is  not  clear  to  man's 
puny  reason  is  not  to  be  "  required  "  of  any  man  to  be  believed. 

There  are  ' '  mysteries  of  God."  A  mystery  is  that  which  we  do  not  un- 
derstand. St.  Paul  acknowledged  that  there  were  such  even  to  him, 
an  inspired  Apostle  ;  and  not  enly  mysteries,  but  great  mysteries  ;  and 
that  this  was  a  truth  so  evident  as  to  be  beyond  all  doubt  or  controver- 
sy. "  Without  controversy  great  is  the  mystery  of  godliness."  (1  Tim. 
iii.  16.)  Shall  we  not  expect  them  to  be  the  same  to  us  ?  They  are  of 
God,  proposed  to  our  Faith,  not  to  our  understanding.  Let  Rational- 
ism know  this  first  prinoiple  of  our  Holy  religion.  If  all  were  knowl- 
edge where  were  Faith  ?  God  is  in  heaven,  we  are  upon  earth.  The 
Church  is  "  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  ;  but  it  is  the  kingdom  of  Heaven 
on  earth.  This  1 '  treasure  is  in  earthen  vessels. "  We  "  walk,"  ' '  live  ' ' 
here  "  by  Faith.,  not  by  sight. "  "Now  we  can  know  but  in  part." 
We  must,  grovelling  here,  "  see  through  a  glass  darkly."  Faith  is  not 
opposed  to  reason,  it  is  only  above  it. 

"  It  is  said  that  once  in  a  company  of  literary  gentlemen,  Daniel 
'  Webster  was  asked  if  he  could  comprehend  how  Jesus  Christ  could  be 
both  God  and  man.    "  No,  sir,"  he  replied  ;  and  added,  "  I  should  be 


15 


ashamed  to  acknowledge  Him  as  my  Saviour  if  I  could  comprehend 
Him;  He  could  be  do  greater^than^myself.  Such  is  my  sense  of  sin  and 
consciousness  of  my  inability  to  save  myself,  that  I  feel  I  need*  super- 
human Saviour,  one  so  great  and  glorious  that  I  cannot  comprehend 
him."  That,  brethren,  is  the  philosophy  of  Faith.  What  is  on  our 
level  we  may  respect  ;  what  is  below  us,  we  despise  ;  we  can  reverence 
and  adore  and  worship,  as  creatures  should  the  Great  Creator,  only 
that  which  is  removed  far  above,  out  of  our  sight  and  understanding. 

Mysteries  of  God?  Certainly.  Let  this  Apostolic  phrase  be  answer 
enough  to  all  the  foolish  babblings  of  nationalistic  infidelity.  They 
are  the  legitimate  objects  of  Faith  ;  that  Faith  that  "  justineth  "  and 
bringeth  "the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  all  understanding  ;  "  that 
Faith  that  cometh  before  Hope  and  Charity ;  that  Faith  that  "  availeth 
in  Christ  Jesus "  above  "circumcision  or  uncircumcision,  "  "that 
worketh  by  love,"  and 

*  *  *  "  Humble  love 
And  not  proud  reason,  keeps  the  door  of  heaven  : 
Love  finds  admission  where  proud  science  fails. '; — (Young.) 

"Thou  didst  open  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  to  all  believers."  Of 
these  "mysteries  of  God"  are  we  "  stewards."  They  are  com- 
mitted to  our  keeping  and  to  our  teaching.  Especially  are  the  "  two 
only  sacraments  as  generally  necessary  to  salvation"  "  mysteries  "  of 
life-sustaining  grace,  "  ordained  by  Christ  himself,  as  a  means  whereby 
we  receive  the  same,  and  a  pledge  to  assure  us  thereof."  These  God 
forbid  that  we  should  handle  with  irreverent  touch.  They  are  memo- 
rials of  God's  gift  of  His  dear  Son,  that  mystery  of  mysteries.  They 
are  channels  of  grace.  They  are  ours  as  stewards  to  distribute  to  the 
family  of  the  Faithful ;  and  "  it  is  required  in  stewards  that  a  man  be 
found  faithful." 

Finally,  Brethren, — and  I  fear  you  will  think  I  am  long  in  saying  it, 
we  are  stewards  of  the  manifold  gifts  of  God,  both  as  ministers  and 
members  of  His  Church;  and  "  it  is  required  in  stewards  that  a  man  be 
found  faithful." 

What  a  peculiar  measure  of  responsibility  rests  upon  Churchmen  of 
this  day  and  generation,  and  especially  in  this  land  !  Surely  it  is  but 
the  part  of  wisdom  briefly  to  recall  these  very  obvious  signs  of  the 
times,  and  the  relations  that  our  branch  of  the  Church  Catholic  now 
sustains  to  the  Christian  world. 

The  errors  and  corruptions  and  innovations  of  Rome  have  well-nigh  r 
to  all  human  appearances,  culminated  in  the  blasphemous  promulga- 
tion of  the  dogma  of  the  personal  infallibility  "  of  a  man  that  shall  die, 
and  of  the  son  of  man  which  shall  be  made  as  grass."  (Isaiah  li.  12.) 
Her  wisest  and  best  sons  are  seeking  to  rid  the  Old  Catholic  Faith  of 
all  that  is  false,  and  are  looking  about  them  for  a  basis  on  which  "  all 
who  profess  and  call  themselves  Christians''  may  unite.  In  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Bishop  of  Illinois  :  "The  hope  of  the  world,  as  the  re- 


16 


fuge  and  rallying  point  for  unity,  and  the  adaptive  to  the  unrest,  crav- 
ings and  experiments  of*  our  social  state,  is  the  Anglican  Communion, 
with  its  ancestral  fidelity  to  the  Divine  Faith  and  appointments  ;  its 
comprehensive  liberty  in  opinion  ;  its  Catholicity  in  spirit  and  practice  ; 
its  protest  against  the  arrogance  of  the  Papacy  and  the  insidiuous  wrongs 
of  Eomanism,  and  its  wise  and  gentle  yearnings  for  the  restoration  of 
unity.  "*  And  certainly  this  is  but  a  just  expression  of  the  truth  as  we 
can  but  see  and  know  it. 

In  the  most  enlightened  portions  of  the  Old  World,  and  in  our  own 
country,  accessions  to  our  communion  from  other  bodies  of  professing 
Christians  were,  perhaps,  never  so  numerous  as  at  present. 

"Dr.  Gutherie,  one  of  the  most  prominent  Presbyterians  of  Scot- 
land, and  well-known  in  this  oountry  by  his  printed  sermons,  lately 
made  the  statement  at  a  public  meeting  in  Edinburgh,  that  there  was 
"on  every  side  a  growing  inclination  toward  the  Episcopalian 
Church,  and  that  he  feared  that  the  Presbyterian  Church  would  soon 
be  supplanted  by  its  more  liberal  rival."  (The  Hartford  Churchman 
ior  April  27th,  1872. ) 

The  rate  of  increase  of  the  Church  in  our  own  land — as  ascertained 
from  actual  statistics — is  nearly  fifty  per  cent,  greater  than  that  of  any 
other  body  of  professing  Christians^    We  scarcely  see  a  Church  paper 

*  Bishop  Whitehouse's  Convention  Address,  1870. 

fThis  is  exactly  the  statement  made  in  the  sermon  as  preached.  At  the  time 
it  was  prepared,  the  statistics  referred  to  were  not  at  hand. 

Writing  from  memory  ouly  and  resolved  to  be  on  "  the  safe  side"  I  stated 
just  half  the  truth.  The  fact  is,\the  rate  of  the  Church's  increase  in  this  country  for 
the  last  fifteen  years  is  just  one  hunred  pee  cent,  greater  than  thatof  any  other  body 
of  professing  Christians,  as'the  subjoined  statistics,  compiled  by  the  "New  York 
Observer,"  in  one  of  its  issues  published  in  the  early  part  of  this  year  (1872), 
will  show,  viz  :— "  The  Protestaut  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  Sates  re- 
ports an  actual  accession  to  its  Communion,  last  year,  of  24,124,  being  a 
larger  per  centage,  upon  its  whole  number  of  members,  (224,995)  than  any 
other  Church.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  reports  an  increase  of  58,387, 
and  a  total  membership  of  1,172,099.  The  Eeuuited  Presbyterian  Church  re- 
ported as  received  on  examination,  last  year,  27.770,  and  a  total  of  455.378 
members.  The  Congregationalists  had  13,501  added  by  profession,  and  a  total 
membership  of  306,518.  The  Presbyterian  Church  (South),  reported  (1870)  a 
total  membership  of  87,529,  and  additions  on  profession  of  5,302.  The  regular 
Baptists  report  a  total  membership  of  1,410,403,  and  77,795  added  by  baptism, 
and  15,636  excluded,  aud  2,271  erased." 

Thus,  as  Dr.  S.  P.  Parker,  in  his  sermon  preached  before  the  Seventieth 
Convention  of  the  Diocese  of  New  Hampshire,  in  St.  Thomas'  Church,  Dover, 
May  25,  1870,  entitled  "the  Church's  Law  of  Interpretation  of  Scripture," 
page  26,  says  :  "Of  the  two  largest  Christian  bodies  in  the  country,  the  Meth- 
odists have  increased  21  per  cent,  and  a  fraction,  and  the  Baptists  21  per  cent, 
and  a  smaller  fraction,  throughout  the  couutry  within  fifteen  years.  The 
Episcopal  Church  has  increased  42  per  cent,  throughout  the  country  in  the 
same  time."    That  is  just  double. 


17 


that  does  not  record  the  accession  to  the  ranks  of  our  ministry  of  some 
one  or  more  tired  of  the  disintegrating  process,  and  multitudinous  and 
contradictory  forms  of  faith,  of  Dissent.  The  recent  General  Conven- 
tion at  Baltimore  gave  evidence  of  a  growth  of  the  Church  throughout 
the  entire  borders  of  our  land,  and  especially  in  the  great  and  rapidly 
growing  Northwest  and  West,  positively  marvellous.  So  rapid  indeed 
as  very  naturally  to  suggest  at  least  the  possible  fear  that  such  won- 
drous growth  may  be  more  nominal  than  real,  or  too  rapid  to  be  health- 
ful. 

What  fair  proportions,  towers  of  strength,  and  mighty  bulwarks  of 
our  Zion  did  that  great  gathering  of  Bishops,  Elders  and  Brethren 
manifest  to  the  world  !  How  confidently  and  generally  in  the  public 
press  was  it  predicted  that  at  least  the  initiators  of  a  schism  in  the 
Church  would  be  taken  at  that  meeting  !  And  how  triumphantly, 
thank  God!  did  the  action  of  that  body  disprove  and  dispel  such 
painful  forebodings  and  confident  predictions  !  Earnest  men,  of  well- 
known  ability  and  widely  diverging  views,  by  the  "constraining  love 
of  Christ,"  grounded  their  differences,  and  that  great  gathering  of  the 
faithful,  after  a  lengthy  session,  and  harmonious  under  the  circumstan- 
ces to  an  extent  that  nothing  but  the  overruling  guidance  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  could  have  brought  about,  dispersed  to  "  preach  the  word  "  lit- 
erally to  the  very  ends  of  the  earth  ;  refreshed  and  strengthened  and 
blessing  God  that  His  Church  is  stronger  to-day  than  ever  before  in 
our  midst,  aLd  apparently^  also,  throughout  the  world. 

But  do  I  go  out  of  my  way  to  speak  of  these  things  in  a  vain-glorious 
spirit  ?  God  forbid  !  I  see,  rather,  in  these  things  only  a  more  urgent 
enforcement  of  this  teaching  of  St.  Paul  before  us.  So  mighty  for 
good  are  these  trusts  committed  to  us  of  God,  there  is  only  the  more 
need  of  increased  faithfulness.  Men  everywhere  are  "  searching  for 
the  old  paths  to  walk  therein."  There  is  nothing  like  the  light  of 
faithfulness  in  our  Christian  profession  to  direct  them  thither.  "Let 
your  light  so  shine  before  men  that  they  may  see  your  good  works  and 
glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  "We  must  speak  the  truth 
insincerity,  but  we  must  speak  it  also  in  love.  If  we  contend  that  our 
creed  is  more  pure  and  our  Church  more  Scriptural  than  those  from 
whom  we  differ,  a  double  woe  will  be  ours  if  the  spirit  in  wThich  we 
differ  be  not  more  heavenly,  and  the  daily  temper  more  chastened  and 
subdued."  We  may,  nay  must  "reprove"  and  "  reb  uke "  as  well  as 
"exhort,"  but  it  must  be  "with  all  long  suffering.'" 

"  The  lines  have  fallen  to  us  in  pleasant  places  ;  yea,  we  have  a  goodly 
heritage."  We  have  a  primitive  faith;  a  time-honored  "form  of 
sound  words  "  that  has  attracted  the  admiration  of  the  world.  It  is 
but  the  part  of  faithfulness  to  such  a  high  trust  to  "hold  it  fast,"  nor 
violate  by  excess  or  defect  the  spirit  or  letter  of  its  least  provision. 

But  however  encouraging  and  pleasant  the  prospect  that  this  out- 
look from  the  walls  of  our  Zion  discovers,  there  is  a  less  extended  one 


18 


that  it  the  more  concerns  us  timely  and  wisely  to  note,  though  it  be 
far  less  flattering  or  agreeable.  Surely  we  fall  very  far  short  of  that 
faithfulness  required  in  stewards  of  such  trusts  and  opportunities  for 
good,  when  in  a  diocese  numbering  3,500  communicants  there  is  not 
even  one  Church  paper  ;  no  permanent  Episcopal  fund  ;  an  annual  and 
considerable  deficit  in  the  small  assessments  imposed  in  consequence 
on  the  parishes  for  the  support  of  the  Episcopate,  and  a  still  greater 
falling  off  in  the  small  amounts  promised  and  due  our  parochial  and 
missionary  clergy.  And  what  changes,  and  how  prejudicial  to  the 
•cause  of  Christ  in  our  midst,  does  this  sad  state  of  things  make  every 
year  necessary  !  Every  year  is  the  announcement  made  of  the  loss  to 
the  diocese  by  removal,  of  one  or  more  of  her  clergy  ;  compelled  to  leave 
their  charges  to  which  they  were  strongly  attached,  and  where  they 
had  been  in  most  cases,  signally  useful,  and  forced  to  seek  homes  out 
of  the  State  among  strangers,  and  all  for  want  of  the  bare  necessities  of 
life  for  themselves  and  their  families.  And  how  many  such  parishes 
thus  left,  are  still  vacant  or  only  enjoy  an  occasional  missionary 
service  !  Upon  whom  rests  the  responsibility  for  such  spiritual  desti- 
tution ?  I  know  very  well  how  sadly  things  are  changed  with  us  at  the 
South,  but  that  does  not  prevent  our  giving  back  to  God  a  certain  pro- 
portion of  the  little  left  us.  And  I  verily  believe  had  we  of  our  abun- 
dance given  more  we  should  not  now  so  generally  have  to  lament  the 
loss  of  well  nigh  all.  "He  that  hath  little  let  him  do  his  diligence 
■gladly  to  give  of  that  little.'"    This  is  the  rule  imposed  by  God. 

Missionaries  are  now  in  this  diocese  preaching  over  an  area  of  100 
miles  or  more,  and  endeavoring  to  live  on  miserable  little  pittances  of 
$300  or  $400  a  year,  and  even  that  amount  too  frequently  reluctantly 
doled  out  not  as  a  debt  due,  but  forsooth  as  a  gratuity,  a  charitable  of- 
fering !  And  these  very  men,  from  their  natural  ability,  and  scholarly 
attainments  and  untiring  labor,  might  easily,  in  any  other  profession  or 
occupation,  command,  if  not  wealth,  at  least  a  competency  abundantly 
sufficient  for  their  comfort  and  that  of  their  families.  But  because  the 
vows  of  God  are  upon  them,  and  they  devote  all  their  labors  to  Him 
and  the  good  of  their  fellows,  feeling  that  they  are  "  separated  for  this 
work,"  and  unwilling  to  engage  in  secular  pursuits  incompatable  with, 
or  that  would  necessarily  hinder  this  holy  work,  they  are  harrassed  and 
worried  by  day  and  by  night, — and  their  work  for  God  is  retarded — for 
want  of  the  bare  necessities  of  life.  My  brethren  of  the  laity,  I  am  not 
stating  the  case  too  strongly.  I  know  these  self-sacrificing  servants  of 
God  of  whom  I  speak  ;  and  I  know  that  about  them  that  you  and  the 
world  will  never  know,  because  they  are  the  last  men  in  the  world  to 
parade  their  necessities  before  the  public.  But  that  faithfulness  to 
God-given  trusts,  which  avails  most  in  bringing  men  to  acknowledge 
"the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,"  is  the  daily  life  of  consistency  in  our 
Christian  profession.  This  is  the  one  great  argument  that  weighs 
most  with  all  men.    "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  is  the  oft- 


19 


repeated  test  of  the  Master.  uIf  ye  love  Me  keep  My  command- 
ments.'" "  Hereby  ice  do  know  that  uce  know  Him,  if  we  keep  His  Com- 
mandments.'" Here  surely  may  all  be  agreed  as  to  that  faithfulness 
' '  required  in  stewards. " 

"See  how  these  Christians  love  one  another  "  was  that  which  most 
impressed  the  heathen  of  old.  With  all  the  many  and  peculiar  advan- 
tages of  our  heritage  of  faith  as  Churchmen,  let  us  especially  guard 
against  the  prayer  of  the  Pharisee  :  "  God,  I  thank  Thee  that  I  am  not 
as  other  men  are."  May  such  words  never  be  on  our  lips,  nor  the  spirit 
which  prompted  them  ever  in  our  hearts  !  The  prayer  that  fits  us  best 
— and  evels,  here  on  earth,  must  it  be  so — is  the  rather  that  other  : 
"  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner."  The  sum  and  substance  of  all  neces- 
sary warning  for  us  of  the  clergy — may  we  bear  it  ever  in  mind — is  em- 
bodied in  that  single,  quaint,  and  comprehensive  saying  of  Bishop 
Hall:  "  The  sins  of  teachers  are  the  teachers  of  sin:v  while  for  us  all, min- 
isters and  members  of  Christ,  aye,  and  those  alas  !  who  are  neither, 
yet  "  st^^ds  of  the  manifold  grace  of  God,"  are  those  other  words  of 
warnin^Bl  this  plain  teaching  of  the  text :  "  It  is  required  i?i  stewards 
that  a  man  be  found  faithful." 

And  when  at  the  last  Great  Day,  we  shall  be  called  upon — as  we 
surely  shall,  every  one,  priest  and  people  alike — to  "give  an  account 
of  our  stewardship,"  may  for  each  of  us  those  words  of  the  Master  be 
said:  "Well  done,  thou  good  and  faithful  servant ;  thou  hast  been 
faithful  over  a  few  things,  I  will  make  thee  ruler  over  many  things  : 
enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord."    God  in  mercy  grant  it !  Amen. 


4 


Date  Due 


AUG  8  "66 

fcPR  3  0  70 

Demco  293-5 

